The Days When I Smoked

Huff...

Puff...

Ah...

Have you ever tried it before?

Have NOT?

Oh my God...(chuckles)

Then DO NOT EVEN THINK OF TRYING.

Controversial title

Yeah. Controversies are fun, aren't they?

Like gossips. That's what lead you here in the first place, am I not wrong?

(smiles)

Although, please don't enjoy gossips, controversies and the like (dan yg seumpama dengannya). We may not realize it, but those are considered "ghibah" or in Malay "mengumpat". Ghibah is an Arabic term. In English, I'll just translate this simply, it means talking something about someone, behind his back, that if the person finds out or somehow hears about it, then he will become angry, or dislikes what he hears. More simply, ghibah means saying bad things about a person behind his back, even if it is the truth.

It is a sin. I repeat, ghibah is a sin. A big sin, and the Prophet Muhammad saw / pbuh said; "

Beware of ghibah for the sin of ghibah is bigger than the sin of adultery (zina). Verily those who commit adultery, when he repents, Allah will accept his repentance. And verily those who do ghibah (back-stabbing/ says bad things about someone behind his back), his sin WILL NOT BE FORGIVEN BEFORE THE PERSON TO WHOM HE DOES GHIBAH FORGIVES HIM." (from Ibnu Abi al-Dunya and Ibnu Hibban. Taken from the magazine Solusi, issue 18, page 37)

In my opinion, (for the adultery part), Allah Taala will accept the repentance/ taubah of an adulterer, with the condition that it is taubah nasuha, which is he or she really, really, really regrets it and vows never to do it again. That is the real taubah which insya-Allah will be heard and accepted by Allah Taala for He is al-Ghofur wa ar-Rahim (الغفور الرحيم).

As for the sin of ghibah...take it seriously my friends. Let us...really take it seriously.

Muhammad saw, the person whom we follow for guidance on how to live our lives as muslims said,

"the sin of ghibah is bigger than the sin of adultery (zina)."

Can we just, just stop every thought in our mind and think about what this man has said? Muhammad saw compared, our gossiping (which in my opinion is modern term of ghibah), to adultery. Just...just think. If adultery in our (Islamic) perspective is utterly...I don't know..gross and disgusting..then why did Nabi (prophet) Muhammad saw compared it with ghibah? And he even went further and said, ghibah is worse than zina! Can we just...feel for a moment how big ghibah is?

My friends,

this is just a friendly reminder to you, and to me even more. Just...just think before we say something. Remember Nabi Muhammad saw said;

"his sin WILL NOT BE FORGIVEN BEFORE THE PERSON TO WHOM HE DOES GHIBAH FORGIVES HIM."

Remember, these words are the words of the most truthful and honest man, to me at least, that I have ever known. So trust him. His words must have a wisdom, and even more, truth behind them.

Allright2...coot2...the train of thought has sidetracked...AGAIN..

Yes2. My controversial title. (smiles)

N.O.

That's a big NO.

NO, I DON'T SMOKE.

But there were days when I did smoke.

Confused?

Ahah. Don't be. Because know that you can be a smoker too, even when you hate, loathe, grrr utterly loathe, hate (did I say that before?) smoking.

Second hand smoker

Yes, my dear mates.

Unfortunately, VERY unfortunately, those who have never lighted a cigarette butt, are sometimes smokers too.

When we pass through the streets, and suddenly that nice aroma comes like a charm under our noses..ah...what a nice surprise eh?

Nice...yeah. I'm being sarcastic here (sinis/perli).

Secondhand Smoke

What is secondhand smoke?

Secondhand smoke is also known as environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) or passive smoke. It is a mixture of 2 forms of smoke that come from burning tobacco: sidestream smoke (smoke that comes from the end of a lighted cigarette, pipe, or cigar) and mainstream smoke (smoke that is exhaled by a smoker). Even though we think of these as the same, they aren't. The sidestream smoke has higher concentrations of cancer-causing agents (carcinogens) than the mainstream smoke. And, it contains smaller particles than mainstream smoke, which make their way into the body's cells more easily.

When non-smokers are exposed to secondhand smoke it is called involuntary smoking or passive smoking. Non-smokers who breathe in secondhand smoke take in nicotine and other toxic chemicals just like smokers do. The more secondhand smoke you are exposed to, the higher the level of these harmful chemicals in your body.

Why is secondhand smoke a problem?

Secondhand smoke causes cancer

Secondhand smoke is classified as a "known human carcinogen" (cancer-causing agent) by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the US National Toxicology Program, and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a branch of the World Health Organization.

Tobacco smoke contains over 4,000 chemical compounds. More than 60 of these are known or suspected to cause cancer.

Secondhand smoke causes other kinds of diseases and deaths

Secondhand smoke can cause harm in many ways. In the United States alone, each year it is responsible for:

• An estimated 46,000 deaths from heart disease in non-smokers who live with smokers
• About 3,400 lung cancer deaths in non-smoking adults
• Other breathing problems in non-smokers, including coughing, mucus, chest discomfort, and reduced lung function
• 50,000 to 300,000 lung infections (such as pneumonia and bronchitis) in children younger than 18 months of age, which result in 7,500 to 15,000 hospitalizations annually
• Increases in the number and severity of asthma attacks in about 200,000 to 1 million children who have asthma
• More than 750,000 middle ear infections in children
• Pregnant women exposed to secondhand smoke are also at increased risk of having low birth- weight babies.

Secondhand smoke may be linked to breast cancer

Whether secondhand smoke increases the risk of breast cancer is an issue that is still being studied. Both mainstream and secondhand smoke contain about 20 chemicals that, in high concentrations, cause breast cancer in rodents. And we know that in humans, chemicals from tobacco smoke reach breast tissue and are found in breast milk.

But a link between secondhand smoke and breast cancer risk in human studies is still being debated. This is partly because breast cancer risk has not been shown to be increased in active smokers. One possible explanation for this is that tobacco smoke may have different effects on breast cancer risk in smokers and in those who are exposed to secondhand smoke.

A report from the California Environmental Protection Agency in 2005 concluded that the evidence regarding secondhand smoke and breast cancer is "consistent with a causal association" in younger women. This means that the secondhand smoke acts as if it could be a cause of breast cancer in these women. The 2006 US Surgeon General's report, The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke, found that there is "suggestive but not sufficient" evidence of a link at this point. In any case, women should be told that this possible link to breast cancer is yet another reason to avoid being around secondhand smoke.

Secondhand smoke kills children and adults who don't smoke, and makes others sick (Surgeon General's report)

The 2006 US Surgeon General's report reached some important conclusions:

• Secondhand smoke causes premature death and disease in children and in adults who do not smoke.
• Children exposed to secondhand smoke are at an increased risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), acute respiratory infections, ear problems, and more severe asthma. Smoking by parents causes breathing (respiratory) symptoms and slows lung growth in their children.
• Secondhand smoke immediately affects the heart and blood circulation in a harmful way. Over a longer time it also causes heart disease and lung cancer.
• The scientific evidence shows that there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke.
• Many millions of Americans, both children and adults, are still exposed to secondhand smoke in their homes and workplaces despite a great deal of progress in tobacco control.
• The only way to fully protect non-smokers from exposure to secondhand smoke indoors is to prevent all smoking in that indoor space or building. Separating smokers from non-smokers, cleaning the air, and ventilating buildings cannot keep non-smokers from being exposed to secondhand smoke.

http://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancercauses/tobaccocancer/secondhand-smoke

Yahoo! Nice to know we are passive smokers! wahaha...(rolling my eye balls, though not very good at it)

Two hands, two different things

I want to share a picture I saw last night.

Last night, Saturday 20th Nov 2010, while I was on my way home to KL, at a RNR, I saw this strange picture.

It was a man.

A dad.

And he was holding two different things in his two hands.

In one of his hands, between his fingers, was...a cigarette. It's butt was still red; signalling it had just been lit.

Guess what was in his other hand?

Who, rather.

It was his little daughter.

Maybe only one or two years old.

It was the strangest 'picture' I had ever seen.

Here was, in front of me, a man, who is the picture (gambaran) of a loving father. but at the same time, he is also the picture of...a destroyer.

I wondered;

does he not know what he is doing to his beloved daughter?

The effects of second hand smoking is very severe, as told to us over and over again. Second hand smokers, are in fact, inhaling the same chemicals and toxics that the smoker inhales with every puff, when in fact second hand smokers never even dreamed of putting that blasted piece of rubbish even one meter from their mouthes.

A different analogy

I wonder...if every smoker just put this mental analogue in their minds, would they ever thought of smoking again;

Picture a cigarette as a knife, putting it in your mouth, and suck on that knife as if it were the sweetest lollipop on earth...can you imagine the effects?

would you have put this in your mouth?

Ouch...this is rated PG13...

But you know, sometimes when all sweet measures (talks, campaigns etc ) have failed to knock some sense, what else can you resort to?

I don't have the answer...

The answer is within ourselves.

Like that strange picture I told you about.

What would that man have chosen to be; a loving father,

or an unknowingly destroyer of his daughter's life?

It's a choice. It's our choice. The question is; which choice will it be?

Your life - your choice. So choose wisely my friends. Until we meet again, assalamualaikum wbt.